Published : 2021-12-08

An Academic Career 'by Chance'?

Biographies of Socially Mobile Academics in Narrative Perspective

Abstract

This article analyses the biographies of Polish academics who have experienced social mobility: coming from families with modest intellectual traditions, they have succeeded in the academic world. Drawing on sociological data collected in two projects – (1) biographical interviews with upwardly mobile academics and (2) in-depth interviews with, mostly middle- and upper-middle class, academics who have moved to the West, we show that the former describe their lives as a kind of a "chance," in contrast to the latter, who tend to plan their careers. Building on Ronald Dworkin's distinction between 'brute luck' and 'option luck', we argue that, although the emphasis on the chance, understood as a narrative strategy, can be linked to the experience of upward mobility, the life stories of academics contain different kinds of "chances." A detailed analysis of four biographies demonstrated that "a chance" can refer to: the help of "significant others", appearing in the right place at the right time, or the support of the clergymen.

Keywords:

social mobility, upward mobility, lecturers, researchers, coincidence


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Kurek-Ochmańska, O., & Łuczaj, K. (2021). An Academic Career ’by Chance’? : Biographies of Socially Mobile Academics in Narrative Perspective. Biografistyka Pedagogiczna, 6(1), 397–427. https://doi.org/10.36578/BP.2021.06.15

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"Biografistyka Pedagogiczna" received funding for the years 2022-2024 from the funds of the Minister of Education and Science under the programme „Rozwój Czasopism Naukowych”.

Project duration: 2023-2024.

The amount of co-financing is 65 992,00 PLN

Contract number: RCN/SP/0434/2021/1